Looks like a fantastic affordable little tablet - will hopefully get good reviews and appear in Europe before Xmas ENGADGET Android-based, 7-inch display, $199 price tag Okay, so it wasn't much of a surprise, but Amazon finally has a tablet, and as expected its name picks up where the Kindle left off: Fire. Of course, rumors of an Amazon tablet date back to this time last year (if not before), but it seems that Jeff and co. have wisely chosen to get this thing out on the open market before having yet another wild and wacky holiday quarter. Bloomberg has curiously reported on some of the details before the event itself kicks off, noting that the 7-inch device will run a version of Android while acting much like a "souped-up Kindle." The real kicker, however, is the price -- at just $199, it's bound to turn heads, regardless of whether you were interested in a slate before. Naturally, that bargain-bin sticker explains the lack of an embedded camera and microphone, though consumers will find WiFi (no 3G, sadly) and a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime. It's also quite clear that Amazon's hoping to make a bigger splash on the content side of things than has been made already by Apple, and with the deals flowing like wine, we wouldn't be shocked if it does just that. Update: Itching for specs? How's about a 7-inch IPS (!) panel, Gorilla Glass coating, a 1GHz TI OMAP dual-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage and a chassis that weighs 14.6 ounces. There's also access to things you'd expect to have access to: Android Appstore (though no access to Google's Android Market!), Kindle books, magazines, etc. -- all stored for free via Amazon Cloud Storage. Per Jeff: "Delete it and get it back when you want." Oh, and Whispersync now works with movies and TV shows! "When you get home, switch to your big screen TV. Your movie will be right where you left it." While it's clearly Android underneath, the actual UI looks effectively nothing like it -- considering TechCrunch's intel that Amazon went and did its own thing without Google's blessing, we guess that makes some level of sense. Oh, and pre-orders are set to start today (but only for Americans... boo), with shipments heading out on November 15th. Update 2: We've added the first commercial video after the break. Update 3: Check out our hands-on impressions right here! Official Commercial: [YOUTUBE]jUtmOApIslE[/YOUTUBE]
Looks like i know what to get me mam for x-mas now sick of her robbing my i-phone and i-pod to go on facebook .
I got a tip a long time ago to get into Amazon shares as this was coming and going to shake things up big time.Been the good socialist I did not have the first clue about how to buy shares,I wounder if they have gone up at all or is it to early to tell.
Being into tech Paul, I knew the same myself. But as they say, money makes money. Even if you only got onto this the last couple of days, check this out: "Shares Rise Amazon’s shares rose $5.50, or 2.5 percent, to $229.71 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has increased 28 percent this year. Apple fell $2.25 to $397.01. Shares of Barnes & Noble Inc., maker of the Nook e-reader, declined 91 cents, or 6.9 percent, to $12.30 on the New York Stock Exchange.".
And if they throw a 10" version on the market within 1-2 months of this for $50+ or so, they will dominate the (android) tablet/slate market for quite some time. Brilliant move by Amazon - easy to say now, but this was coming. Their skin of android looks amazing as well - the market has been crying out for this. Tablets are overpriced - the iPad2 & Co are massively overpriced. This is the game changer. They are going to clean up (mainly on services subscriptions, not hardware). Excellent read - http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/20...-as-service-not-tablet-in-ipad-challenge.html
Despite running Android, this isn't an Android tablet, because apparently you can't access the Android marketplace... so I don't think it will dominate the Android tablets unless we can get the android marketplace. It's an Amazon tablet, the reason it's so cheap is because everything available for it will be on the Amazon store... so they will make their money on the downloads rather than the device... But, I'm hoping that we will be able to install apps from an SD card or something, and if so... I'll be getting one
You get access to the Android Appstore http://www.amazon.com/mobile-apps/b?ie=UTF8&node=2350149011 But just no access to the Android Market, there is plenty of apps to keep people going on the above link. But I'm sure you could do it with an SD too Google wouldn't grant them access, I presume due to the fact they wou;dn't use their UI
Pedant But it is Android at it's core Understand your point though, but with the Kindle having the Amazon App Store and Android Appstore (as Elvis pointed out) - that's over 16,000 apps already. And I'll put money with you it will be the best selling Android tablet in a few months Specs here for those interested.
Amazon to lose $50 on each Kindle Fire, says analyst Amazon may lose as much as $50 on each Kindle Fire tablet that it sells, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. In an investor note released yesterday, Munster calculated the manufacturing cost of each Kindle Fire at $250. But the company is selling its new tablet for $199. In comparison, Apple spends around $350 to produce a $499 iPad 2. Assuming Amazon is able to sell 2.5 million tablets in the fourth quarter, Munster says the loss on each Kindle Fire could drill down earnings by 10 to 20 percent. However, as other analysts have noted, Amazon isn't counting on sales from the hardware. Instead, the company is hoping to draw in more consumers to spend money on its entire digital shopping center of music, books, videos, apps, and other products. If successful, that strategy should more than compensate for the loss the company takes on each tablet and the impact on earnings. "We point out that the outlined potential downside does not contemplate additional revenue from the halo of Prime memberships, digital content consumption, and potentially physical product consumption we expect the Kindle Fire to encourage," Munster said in his note. "With the Kindle Fire, we believe Amazon is attempting a unique tablet strategy by leveraging a superior cloud-based content delivery system tied with Prime to make money off of a device we believe will sell at a loss." How does the analyst feel Amazon's tablet will fare against the iPad? The main difference, of course, is price, with the Kindle Fire selling for $300 less than the cheapest iPad 2. But Munster gives the nod to the iPad for offering strong hardware and software, while the Kindle is betting on a strong cloud-based service for delivering content. "While the Kindle tablet will be the first tablet beyond the iPad that is accompanied by a meaningful content offering (Amazon's suite of video, music, apps, and cloud services), we believe the overall experience may remain a step or two behind that of the iPad for now," the analyst said. With the Kindle tablet's 7-inch screen size, lack of 3G, and absent camera, Munster doesn't see it as a true iPad competitor but admits it's more competitive than he expected "due to its new movie, music, and web browsing capabilities." Though he's staying firm with his current estimates for iPad sales for the holiday quarter, he is eyeing a market share shake-up for next year. Based on prior forecasts, Munster sees the iPad's share dropping to 60 percent in 2012 from its current 90 percent, while Android's share will grow to around 30 percent from less than 10 percent this year. But now "the Kindle Fire will likely be one of the first Android devices to fuel these Android share gains." Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20113292-93/amazon-to-lose-$50-on-each-kindle-fire-says-analyst/#ixzz1ZLu7Y0xv
Ok lad s I want to get the misses this and myself one as my sister is going shopping to America in December,but can anyone tell me as I haven't a clue about these first will it work over and secondly am I better off waiting till after Christmas I haven't a clue about any of these so any help is much needed.
I see the Kindle Fire can be bought on Amazon.com from Nov 15th but says shipping only to US. Its not listed on amazon.co.uk Anyone know if I can buy it from Amazon and get delivered to Ireland. Was going to get herself a kindle, but might as well wait for the colour one even if its next year.
Don't think anybody knows. http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=Tx1ATW17STX2ZZ